As a way of keeping physically and mentally fit and staying connected our PE Department is organising a fun activity to see how far we can collectively travel around the globe in 40 days.
Thanks to everyone who has run, walked or cycled, or used their paddle board or longboard to collectively travel around the world since our challenge was set on 12 January 2021.
Mr Orkney said this morning, "Day 10 of 40 - a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. Together we have recorded 4,246 miles and have reached the capital city of India, New Delhi."
New Delhi is the second most populated city in the world and is home to 29.6 million people. The city experiences frequent earthquakes and In 2013 suffered from a total of 12, with four of magnitudes higher than 2.5 on the richter scale.
Every Step Counts
Please log your distance travelled on our Google form - every step counts - and don't forget that if a family of four go for a two mile walk then this should be recorded as eight miles - thank you!
Finally, a reminder to follow all government national lockdown guidelines for exercise when you are taking part in our challenge.
Link to Around the World in 40 Days Form
Supporting Your Child's Mental Health
Mr Manley has shared with me this link from the Young Minds charity.
At this link the charity provides six questions with answers for parents to find out how you can support your child's mental health during this pandemic.
Link to the Young Minds website
Also on the Young Minds website there are tips, advice and direction about where to get support for your child's mental health.
Click here for information and advice on When Emotions Explode
Emotional Logic - Free Parent Introduction Session
Emotional Logic aims to help students and adults to build inner strengths to adapt to changes and challenges in life, to help to develop new ways for families to communicate and talk about difficult emotional issues, and find new ways to deal with others when they feel angry, anxious or stuck.
The initial six weekly lessons to develop emotional intelligence for personal development have been taught in Year 7 for several years now, as part of the wider tutorial programme, and many parents have found it useful to understand and to be able to use the techniques themselves outside school.
The Emotional Logic Centre is offering a free parent introduction session on Thursday 28 January from 7.30pm - 8.30pm.
Please use this link if you would like to attend; the site also gives more details about the Emotional Logic personal development tool.
Link to register for the free parent introduction session
Student News
In the Head’s Blog each week we are sharing something of what students are doing at home during this period of national lockdown.
James Hills 6AJD has set himself the challenge of reading daily and has a book recommendation for us.
James said, “I recommend, although now out of season, the book The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus. It is a great Christmas gift for anyone who is into mathematics”.
If you have a book recommendation for me to include in future weeks, please complete this form.
Link to Book Recommendation Form
Please also browse our 16 x 16 reading list for inspiration.
Excellent Work - Food Technology
Ms Hunns has sent me two excellent examples of dishes that students produced last week.
William Courtnell 7C, made an excellent rainbow salad, replacing the starchy carbohydrate to meet dietary requirements, his presentation is brilliant with a garnish of spring onion.
Otto Malm 8S, made an excellent batch of bread rolls which are well risen and golden brown. The plait roll in particular has been executed with accuracy and precision.
Excellent Work - Business Studies
Mr Alsop has shared an example of excellent work from Alan Kraszewski 10C who completed this cash flow forecast during Monday's lesson.
Mr Alsop said, I gave the class the instructions and a very basic spreadsheet to keep track of cash transactions for a music festival. Alan added formulae to his spreadsheet to make it functional, adjusted the formatting to make it easily readable, completed the task accurately, and then undertook the extension task analysing issues with the businesses' cash flow. He managed to do all of this in around 20 minutes, despite having never seen a cash flow forecast before. What I really like about it is that he independently rose to the challenge, and he has used his knowledge from different years and topics in order to apply it to this new concept. He's clearly worked really hard”.
Link to Alan's example in pdf format
PSHEE Activities
As we enter the third week of this lockdown, even the most resilient of us are feeling different manifestations of stress, and this week it is the turn of Year 7 - 9 students to have a lesson on stress survival.
The lesson concentrates on knowing how physical symptoms may show in different people and also suggests a few ways to move out of a stress situation. For instance did you know that practising gratitude, even for little things, four to five times a week is documented to increase feelings of wellbeing?
Year 10 students have a more practical lesson working on developing a CV. They will look at good and bad examples and then write at least the personal statement section of their own, or review and improve if they have already started.
A CV needs to be a fluid, flexible and constantly evolving document which reflects skills and achievements relevant to whatever position is being applied for, so it is important to get into the habit of updating and improving on a regular basis.
Year 11 students have a new revision app to try, recommended by students at DHSB https://getadapt.co.uk and then their main lesson is about road safety especially looking at beginner drivers.
There are several activities to choose from, many of which come from RoSPA (Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents) and the charity Brake. On a sobering note, did you know that over 50% of the 15 year olds seriously injured, or worse, in car accidents were being driven by drivers under the age of 21?
Several more lighthearted activities too, such as games based on stopping distances, but all connected to the important theme of road safety.
Ms Moreton